The Books not directly related to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis section includes:

• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Polio Paradox: Understanding and Treating "Post-Polio Syndrome" and Chronic Fatigue [Syndrome]  by Richard L. Bruno
• Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease by Jeanette Farrell
• The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
• An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks
• Our bodies, Ourselves - BWHBC
• Happy for No Good Reason by Swami Shankarananda
• Quit Smoking the Easy Way by Allen Carr
• The new diet revolution, by Dr Atkins
• Atkins for Life, by Dr Atkins
• Atkins cookbook, by Dr Atkins
• Plague Time : The New Germ Theory of Disease, by Paul Ewald
• Mold Warriors By: Ritchie C. Shoemaker
• The chronic illness experience, by Cheri Register
• Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired: Living with invisible chronic illness, by Paul J. Donoghue, Ph.D. & Mary E. Siegel, Ph.D.
• The Liver Cleansing diet by Sandra Cabot
• The Zone by Barry Sears Ph.D.

Note that these last two books in particular are NOT recommended

(Note that not all of these books have been reviewed yet, merely categorised)

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

'Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. First serialized by Rolling Stone in 1999, the book has drawn comparisons to Upton Sinclair's classic "muckraking" novel, The Jungle.'

Comment: The way M.E. sufferers are denied basic medical care and often even any compassion in our society today has nothing to do supposed opposing medical views on whether M.E. is psychological or physiological and everything to do with vested political and financial interests being allowed to completely take charge of what should be an entirely medical issue.

(For the record, there is ample evidence M.E. is an organic neurological illness and no evidence at all exists which shows otherwise – the psychological or behavioural theories of M.E. have been shown to be IMPOSSIBLE medically. They can and do only exist for political and financial reasons.)

The subsuming of the distinct neurological disease M.E. under various categories of ‘unexplained fatigue’ or CFS exist purely to serve the interests of various extremely powerful corporations, and government departments. For those that find this hard to believe, and who would argue that: (1) corporations in ‘civilised’ countries would not be so completely amoral or unethical (2) corporations would not and could not cause this much harm to so many people merely to make more money (3) our governments (and legal system) would not let these corporations so easily get away with harming and even killing so many people – then this book is something you NEED to read!

In ‘Fast Food Nation’ of course the corporations involved are not the same as the corporations involved in M.E. (eg. the health insurance industry) but this makes little difference as the essential ‘personality’ of these different corporations is EXACTLY the same. (They are completely uninterested in morals, ethics or human rights and are purely driven by ‘efficiency’ and profit).

The recent documentary ‘The Corporation’ also makes these same points very well and is also highly recommended.

‘Fast Food Nation’ is also now available as a film, a fictionalised version of the book (not a documentary).

This book is available from Amazon.

Quotes: The history of the twentieth century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market. Over the past twenty years the US has swung too far in one direction, weakening the regulations that safeguard workers, consumers, and the environment. An economic system promising freedom has too often become a means of denying it, as the narrow dictates of the market gain precedence over more important democratic values. p261

The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by losses imposed on the rest of society. p261.

The real power of the American consumer has not yet been unleashed. A good boycott, a refusal to buy, can speak much louder than words. Sometimes the most irresistible force is the most mundane. p269.

The Polio Paradox: Understanding and Treating "Post-Polio Syndrome" and Chronic Fatigue [Syndrome]  by Richard L. Bruno.

This book review is coming soon.

Invisible Enemies: Stories of Infectious Disease by Jeanette Farrell

"Here are the stories of seven diseases that altered forever the course of human history: smallpox, leprosy, plague, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera and AIDS."

Comments: To see the ways in which other illnesses have been treated and dealt with by government and society and to compare that with the ways ME/ICD-CFS has been dealt with is just fascinating.

For example, in 1900 in the US there was an outbreak of plague in a booming seaport town (California) and with plague came the sensible calls for quarantine to stop its spread. But it never happened. Business leaders, aware that huge sums of money were to be lost if they were unable to operate for such a long period of time, either refused to acknowledge the epidemic at all or else they claimed that it was merely a disease confined to the Chinese - as by mere chance the first plague victim happened to be Chinese. The medical authorities accordingly took action against the Chinese and there was no quarantine. Meanwhile all but one of the city’s newspapers refused to print news of plague. The governor declared, to protect business interests, that there was no plague. Despite there being very good evidence that indeed, plague was rampant, he then fired all the medical authorities who dared to disagree with his warped views. He even proclaimed that it should be made a felony to report plague in the town.

The book also talks about how medicine began to shift from valuing careful observation of patients and their symptoms to doctors not seeing or believing anything that was not written in a book no matter what they saw. "For instance, although, unlike most Greek anatomists, medieval anatomists, medieval physicians dissected dead bodies, and therefore had the opportunity to correct some big mistakes in the Greek books on anatomy, instead they had the Greek books on anatomy read out loud while they dissected, and tried to describe it the way the Greeks believed it to be"

It also talks about how with a slow moving disease that sometimes improves for periods of time all on its own, how many different ‘treatments’ come to be considered useful for the condition when in reality it is all just coincidence. This irritating phenomenon is not just particular to ME/ICD-CFS!

Society refusing to accept a new illness is not at all a phenomenon unique to ME/ICD-CFS either, indeed in some ways we have been dealt with far less harshly than some sufferers of previous outbreaks of other illnesses have been. Tens of thousands of innocent Jewish people have been tortured and burned alive because they were blamed for causing plague (which was really just an excuse to escalate already existing discrimination and persecution) and people with Leprosy (Hanson’s disease) have been buried alive – these are just two examples of many. It makes it feel so much less personal somehow to know that FOR CENTURIES awful things have been done to people who were unlucky enough to become ill with the ‘wrong’ illnesses.

Readability: High. There is just enough detail to get a basic overview of all seven diseases.

Any stupid bits? No, and it also has some fascinating myth-busting facts about Leprosy, now known as Hanson’s disease. It tells about how  90% of people could not get it if they tried and the other 10% would have to live with someone with the disease for years to even have the chance of getting it!! Leprosy (Hanson’s) is one of the very least contagious and least deadly illnesses there is, yet people with leprosy were known as ‘untouchables’ and were often shunned if not actively attacked. Most of this happened merely because there was an error in translation in a religious text, which meant that the word Leprosy and the word sin were confused, and so Leprosy was seen as a sign of sin rather than of disease. People with Leprosy have even buried alive just for having the illness. If only society had learned form this mistake…

The only bad bit in this book is that it doesn’t include ME/ICD-CFS as it should.

Rating: A really interesting read to give you perhaps more insight into how ME/ICD-CFS has been dealt with by our society. There are many books however, which give overviews of infections illnesses throughout history that are possibly every bit as good as this one. Get whichever one/s your local library stocks! This book is just one example.

Quote: "On most days, we go about our business not thinking about our body, merely using it to get where we want to go. But when we get sick we can think of nothing but our aching head or upset stomach. We feel at the mercy of forces beyond our control. Infectious diseases have another troubling aspect: sometimes the disease comes to us from another person. This can turn the fear of disease into fear of one another. It is in this response to fear that humans have been both incredibly brave and incredibly cruel."

The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks

24 case studies of neurological illnesses and oddities as told by the neurologist Oliver Sacks.

Comments: What I like most about this book is the way that Sacks relates to his patients. He doesn’t immediately accept the most obvious and superficial answers but is prepared to go deeper. He realises, for example, that if someone has had neurological deficits for a period of years then of course they will not be so obvious as it is human nature to find ways to compensate for these losses - something not many doctors seem to be able to understand. If only we could all have doctors this sensible and open minded! Doctors who actually take time to examine their patient before they decide what’s wrong with them! (What a deliciously novel idea!)

But it’s more than just this image of a caring doctor that appeals in this book, it’s also that some of the neurological problems described are part of ME/ICD-CFS as well but you just can’t find much information on them at all in any ME/ICD-CFS books. I’m talking about the aphasia’s (inability to understand speech), the vestibular problems, the proprioception problems, the facial agnosia (not being able to recognize faces) and the short-term memory loss.

My Aphasia is only intermittent and not permanent like some of the unfortunate people in this book, but it was fascinating to hear about how even they can still actually understand many things people say to them because – not all communication is verbal! Even though they couldn’t understand a word of what was being said, their friends and family often didn’t even know they had a problem as they compensated by reading the other forms of communication so well.

Knowing about how people deal with the extremes of these symptoms really does give you insights into what is actually happening with the brain and how it can compensate for these losses to a certain extent and it makes clear some of the ways you are coping and compensating maybe while not even being aware of it. Knowing and understanding more about your symptoms really does let you cope and deal with them better too. If you have some of these neurological problems you’ll see so much to relate to in this book and be left in no doubt as to the neurological nature of ME/CFS, it’s all there in black and white.

Quote: And society lacks words, and sympathy, for such states. The blind at least are treated with solicitude – we can imagine their state, and we treat them accordingly. But when Christina, painfully, clumsily, mounts a bus, she receives nothing but uncomprehending and angry snarls: "What’s wrong with you lady? Are you blind – or blind-drunk?" What can she answer – "I have no proprioception"? The lack of social support and sympathy is an additional trial – disabled, but with the nature of her disability not clear – she is not, after all, manifestly blind or paralyzed, manifestly anything – she tends to be treated as a phoney or a fool. This is what happens to those with disorders of the hidden senses (it also happens to patients who have vestibular impairment, or who have been labyrinthectomised)

An Anthropologist On Mars : Seven Paradoxical Tales by Oliver Sacks

This book is much the same as "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" except there are fewer case studies. Get this one only if you just really enjoyed reading the previous one, it doesn’t have anywhere near as much relevance to ME/ICD-CFS as that one does but is still a good read if you enjoy the way Sacks relates to his patients etc.

"A comprehensive manual of mediation and related topics, written by one of the first Western spiritual masters trained in the East."

Comments: This book really changed the way I look at things. Of course it can’t completely erase the awfulness of living with something like ME/ICD-CFS but the idea that you can’t control what happens to you only your reaction to it is a powerful one nevertheless. When you are very severely ill mediating becomes impossible (despite what this book says about it!) but the ideas from the book I still find helpful even though I can’t actually meditate anymore – the principles still hold true and I use them daily to cope with ME/ICD-CFS and everything else. I think the title says it all, when you have no good reason to be happy – read this book!

Readability: High, and it’s not at all preachy and holier than thou in tone.

Rating: The best meditation book I know of and the free meditation CD is excellent.

Quote: "We can cultivate the strength that leads us to the freedom to choose how we react. If someone criticises you, there is a range of responses you can have. You might feel crushed and go to bed for a week, or you might shrug it off as nothing. You might consider the other person and graciously put it down to a cranky mood or a ‘bad hair day’ and forgive the person. You might dismiss it by asking yourself: "Why should I listen to her?" When someone whose opinion you value criticises you, you probably feel quite hurt. However if a two-year-old criticises you, you are not affected. Our reaction is everything."

Comment: A really innovative book designed to kind of reprogram you into not enjoying cigarettes any more so that giving them up is easy to do. It's kind of hard to explain and it's like no other quit smoking thing I've ever read, in fact, it tells you why most quit smoking books and advertisements actually make you want to smoke more! I know they definitely have that effect on me.

Readability: very high, it's very well written and easy to read, lots of repetition so you don't have to work hard to remember what he's saying all the time!

Rating: A must-have if you smoke and wish you didn't. I never thought I'd ever quit and it's been 2 years now and it actually was easy believe it or not. I smoked for 12 years and thought I always would, I enjoyed it so much. It hasn't worked for everyone I've recommended it to, it's by no means 100% effective, but more people I’ve recommended it to have succeeded than failed so far. Maybe you could get a copy at your local library for free to really make it a risk free trial? Incidentally, the money I save on smoking is how I afford all these books!! (Sort of afford anyway!)

The new diet revolution, by Dr Atkins, Atkins for Life, by Dr Atkins, Atkins cookbook, by Dr Atkins.

These book reviews are coming soon.

Plague Time : The New Germ Theory of Disease, by Paul Ewald

This book review is coming soon.

Mold Warriors By: Ritchie C. Shoemaker

This book review is coming soon.

The chronic illness experience, by Cheri Register

This book review is coming soon.

Sick and tired of feeling sick and tired: Living with invisible chronic illness, by Paul J. Donoghue, Ph.D. & Mary E. Siegel, Ph.D.

This book review is coming soon.

The Liver Cleansing diet by Sandra Cabot

Cabot claims in the intro to her book that it can ‘cure’ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I emailed her about this and pointed out that ME/ICD-CFS was a serious neurological illness that diet alone couldn’t possibly cure and could she please take that statement out of the next reprinting of her book (please!) and she (or someone from her company) emailed back saying very condescendingly that actually I was wrong and that they really were ‘curing’ people with the diet and that I should try it myself. Please don’t give this woman any of your money by buying her book!!!

The Zone by Barry Sears PhD.

A high protein, reduced carbohydrate diet book.

Comments: It was really complicated, you had to have the exact percentage of fat, protein and carbohydrate in each meal or snack, I mean, who has the time or the math skills to work that out for everything you eat! It was very hard to read too, very unstructured and not-getting to the pointy.

Any stupid bits? It has a bit in it that talks about chronic fatigue and CFS seemingly interchangably and also states that the ‘fatigue’ can be greatly reduced by the ‘Zone’ diet of course but also by simple fatty acid supplementation – now why didn’t WE think of that! (It also claims to be able to alleviate the painful symptoms of diseases such as multiple and sclerosis and HIV as well though so at least it’s not just us which is a nice change).

M.E. books best avoided

Book Reviews Introduction